Best Line in "Graceland"

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haha plax i am seething with rage and spoiling for a fight

horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link

u r rong it is "hey! ain't we walking down the same street, together, on the very same day"

plax (ico), Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:02 (fourteen years ago) link

that is a v v nice delivery, also

horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:02 (fourteen years ago) link

so conversational!

horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:02 (fourteen years ago) link

just listened to the youtube of this as ive lost the album. do all youtube comments have to have some bit of masochistic nostalgia going on? makes me despair for humantity. i went for 'everybody sees your blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow'.

Michael B, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:07 (fourteen years ago) link

i like how the words play off each other there

window
heart
blown
apart
wind
blow

('_') (omar little), Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:10 (fourteen years ago) link

otm

horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:10 (fourteen years ago) link

great album. great song.

plax (ico), Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:11 (fourteen years ago) link

best album of whatever year it was released

Michael B, Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link

Alright in a kind of a limited way for an off-night.

rhythm fixated member (chap), Saturday, 21 August 2010 23:35 (fourteen years ago) link

Really can't listen to this album anymore having heard it at so many cinematographers' parties.

Doctor Casino, Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:00 (fourteen years ago) link

If you listen to Live in Central Park, each NYC reference in the Simon oeuvre is met with extended whooping.

"There is a girl in New York City...."

WHOOWOOOWHOOWHWOHWOHOOOWHOOO

Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:08 (fourteen years ago) link

Haha, yeah. 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike' etc.

rhythm fixated member (chap), Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:13 (fourteen years ago) link

Has anyone seen One Trick Pony? Is it any good?

rhythm fixated member (chap), Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:16 (fourteen years ago) link

its ... entertaining

NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Sunday, 22 August 2010 01:50 (fourteen years ago) link

Yeah, xps, 'Gumboots' is the best

Ismael Klata, Sunday, 22 August 2010 07:46 (fourteen years ago) link

i voted "for reasons i cannot explain some part of me wants to see graceland" -- b/c that's what I feel about graceland (and any number of other tourist traps).

Voting with My Dollars for More Swill to be Made (Eisbaer), Sunday, 22 August 2010 14:02 (fourteen years ago) link

Some One Trick Pony discussion here:

Paul Simon - One Trick Pony, C or D

and maybe here:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=31830

Doctor Casino, Sunday, 22 August 2010 15:07 (fourteen years ago) link

(that's "Do you believe Paul Simon when, in "Late in the Evening", he describes how he returns to the club after smoking a "J" and proceeds to turn up his amp and "(blow) that room away"?")

Doctor Casino, Sunday, 22 August 2010 15:08 (fourteen years ago) link

classic alex in nyc on that thread:

I believe the bit about smokin' the "j", but not about the room-blowin' (like he suddenly morphed into a diminutive clone of Yngwie Malmsteen).
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, July 22, 2004 8:59 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

Voting with My Dollars for More Swill to be Made (Eisbaer), Sunday, 22 August 2010 15:13 (fourteen years ago) link

is there anyone right now writing lyrics this good and self-aware about the nyc hip-art-music-whatever scene? vampire weekend is the only band thats even attempting this i think and--i think theyre good lyricists--but theyre not paul simon

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:12 (fourteen years ago) link

tbf they've had two albums, what album was graceland for him.

plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:17 (fourteen years ago) link

all his albums have v good lyrics post-simon and garfunkel it's kind of his "thing"

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link

the 70s solo simon albums are so new york-y

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link

like woody allen movies they have had a debilitating effect on my adult life

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link

im not saying vampire weekend "should" be the new paul simon of lyrics, im just wondering if there is a 2000s paul simon

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:20 (fourteen years ago) link

like if there was ever a 'scene' that could use a self aware lyricist with a good sense of humor about 'the scene'... its brooklyn ca 2010

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:21 (fourteen years ago) link

and the thing is vw are UWS brats not brooklyn brats

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:22 (fourteen years ago) link

i think it's clear what you have to do, max

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:22 (fourteen years ago) link

zinging is my art

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link

not lyrics

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link

it's a fine line!!!!!

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link

too true, too true

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:23 (fourteen years ago) link

in a lot of ways my tumblr is my graceland

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:24 (fourteen years ago) link

i mean you dont really need a graceland when you have the ny times in 2010:

http://celebraterickysargulesh.tumblr.com/post/418545344/brooklyn-2010

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:24 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:25 (fourteen years ago) link

Come Anticipate Norah Jones's NYC Zingers.

I do think Craig Finn works at combining stuff that's never been in a song with specific snapshots of times and spaces with stream-of-consciousness, but it's not NYC.

Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:25 (fourteen years ago) link

the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

― plax (ico), Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:25 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's true; i don't really like simon and garfunkel that much at all

horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah finns a good lyricist, but hes not as funny as simon i dont think, or as self aware, and, crucially, from britain or alaska or somewhere

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

^^^ my next point, actually. To be fair to both Koenig and Simon, the latter didn't stumble into his lyrical genius. S&G is often painfully, clumsily erudite.

Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link

Neil Tennant and Robert Forster wrote really good songs about scenes, but their time has passed, I guess.

Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:28 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah, thats fine. i didnt really mean to rag on VW, im just wondering if there IS a 2000s-paul-simon-of-new-york, besides me and my tumblr

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:28 (fourteen years ago) link

btw i have never seen this:

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:29 (fourteen years ago) link

(thats re: me and julio)

max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:29 (fourteen years ago) link

S+G was writing genre songs in the same way that Simon always does, but he was getting Elizabethan and Hymnal Music out of the way early, saving zydeco and (on the great "Adios Hermanos") doo-wop for later.

Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:30 (fourteen years ago) link

there's a making the album documentary where simon talks u through writing graceland line by line and it seems like anyone could have written that song, its kindof awesome.

plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:39 (fourteen years ago) link

idk i think his skill is in managing to be really evocative w/ the smallest parts "the child of my first marriage" is such a banal line but it also paints a massive backstory and dovetails so well w/ the forehead hair brusher l8r

plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link

the last line in this song always kills me. i'm not sure why.

we wanted lime (mike a), Wednesday, 25 August 2010 04:42 (fourteen years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link


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